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Optimism Collides With Violence As the World Rings in 2012
January 01, 2012

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exbrit
7:02am Jan 2, 2012

The various popes have been praying for peace in the Middle east for decades, with no effect whatsoever. Maybe he should give it up.

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Pope Benedict XVI may have ushered in 2012 with a Mass dedicated to world peace in St. Peter’s Basilica on Sunday, but deaths and violence marked the last day of 2011 and the first of this year.

In northeastern Kenya, gunmen sprayed bullets at New Year’s revelers in two bars on Sunday, killing at least two people.

In Syria, more pro-democracy protests welcomed the new year across the country, as more deaths were reported in the regime’s crackdown on dissent.

Bahrain police fired tear gas grenades to disperse protesters on Saturday, killing a teenaged Shiite protester in the Sunni-ruled country where tensions have been running high.

A 31-year-old man died on New Year’s Eve in Italy when a firecracker exploded and blew up his home.

Saudi religious police have arrested an Arab expatriate for displaying balloons celebrating the new year, in violation of a ban on New Year’s celebrations in the conservative Gulf country.

On Saturday, Russian police in Moscow detained about 60 members of a 200-strong group rallying against the government of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

It came just hours after Putin offered a conciliatory message to the opposition in a televised New Year’s Eve address.

Also on the last day of 2011, a wanted former member of the Japanese doomsday Aum Shinrikyo cult, who had been on the run for more than 16 years, turned himself in to authorities.

The fugitive said he wanted a sense of closure after being on the run for such a long time.  

Closer to home, police in Malaysia on Sunday broke up a student protest for greater academic freedom outside a university in northern Perak state and arrested 17 people. The incident comes despite a recent pledge by Prime Minister Najib Razak to allow greater civil liberties.

Lastly, in Indonesia, four people were gunned down in Bireuen, Aceh after celebrating the arrival of the New Year.

 

Agencies and JG